Nice! First off, which lever is stuck? There’s a bottom lever for focusing that rotates a helical to focus the lens, a lever to cock the shutter and a lever to adjust the aperture.
It is the focusing lever that is stuck!
The grease used on the helical has dried out and hardened. You can disassemble the lens and remove the shutter so the helical can be removed, cleaned and regreased or you can remove the lens cells and use a syringe from the inside of the camera to run some solvent like naphtha through the helical to free it up. The first option is pretty tricky even with a service manual. The second option isn’t ideal, but is much easier.
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Thank you! Got some research to do!
I’m currently taking photos of my paintings for a series of limited edition archival prints, but I’m struggling with the camera I have - namely my dad’s old dslr [nikon d3000], it’s just not up to the job. prints need to be 300dpi (tho I can upscale if needed), high resolution for print.
prints aren’t going to be massive, max around 60x60cm.
any recommendations for something suitable that won’t break the bank?
I really like your black and white, especially the one with the birds, the atmosphere, the light.
@pidgeo, depending on the size of your paintings, have you tried a large format scanner, some copy companies or graphic studios offer this service.
It allows not to have deformation and costs less than a device.
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Thanks Simon, I’ll see if there’s any around my area. my largest paintings tend to be around 70x70cm / 60x90cm, so anything up to that size.
great idea btw, hadn’t thought of that. looks like there’s one near my gaf. thanks again.
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Ooh I didn’t see this thread.
I’m often thinking of offering exchange of photo gear for musical one. I didn’t have only GAS for synths but also for cameras and I have way too many.
Anyway, here are some pictures I made : qlamerand | Flickr
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I hope they can, it’s already quite big.
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Holy shit! So that’s you… Somehow I always had this impression that those pics are taken by Shinichi Atobe himself
This means that he is real and not a fictional character… Have you actually met him?
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He’s real but I’m as in the dark as you. Never met him, spoke to him or seen him (in real life). 
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I just looked up the specs on the D3000, and it’s definitely up to the job for 60x60cm prints at 300dpi. I don’t think a different camera is necessary. Firstly, which lens are you using? Dont use anything shorter than 50mm, but anything above 70mm is better.
Secondly, the camera settings such as the colour profile, gamut, white balance. Keep it simple, so choose the standard profile, sRGB, auto WB.
Thirdly, switch off Noise Reduction and auto ISO (set to 100).
Use a tripod, and shoot in natural light if possible.
Dont trust your monitor if it’s not calibrated, but dont overthink it. Get a few postcard size prints made to check colour.
Or, say screw it, shoot instant, in a pinhole cam, bleach the neg, call it art 
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Haha get it framed on your bedroom wall
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Oh, lovely to see this topic on the first page right when I was cleaning through my photo exports (archiving/backing up and removing from my main disk).
Sharing some of them
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Thanks James.
yea my current shots look acceptable for print, tho when you zoom in there’s a bit of blur in the detail so was unsure at what scale they’ll start to suck. I’ll check all the settings you suggest. Nice one 
think I’m defo gonna go the flatbed scanner route from now on tho. local rates are reasonable.
Ah, nice, I’ll share a few photos I made last friday. We had the most perfect lighting conditions here in my place! I’m a long time Nikon user, these were made with the D750 and the AF-P 70-300:
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Do you know you have a picture of Bill Murray and Elon Musk’s son?
Seriously, lots of great photos.
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Anybody have experience with the Sony A7iii? Thinking of picking one up, but not sure if the autofocus is “good enough”. I currently have the A7II, so i know it will be better than that.